Intro: Royal Standley of Oregon Pacific Financial Advisors offering securities through United planners, financial services member, FINRA SIPC guides, clients with empathy in discovering and reaching their financial goals and creates financial plans for clients. So they can live their life by design. In these episodes, he relates his expert financial insights and discusses timely topics.
Royal strives for excellence and has a passion for sharing his knowledge and supporting his community now onto the show.
Aric Johnson: Hello and welcome to Life by Design with Royal Standley of Oregon Pacific Financial Advisors. Good morning, Royal. How are you?
Royal Standley: I'm doing well. How are you doing Aric?
Aric: I am doing fantastic. This is being recorded early October, and I think we're still trying to recover from the first presidential debate, which we will not talk about on this podcast. I think there are too many people talking about it already.
Royal: Yeah, I think we should just move on to the next two and see what happens. So -
Aric: or just pick new people. I don't know. That's just my opinion. Anyway, speaking of new people, you have a guest in studio and I'm so excited because this is going to be a much better conversation than what was going on the other night.
You brought on Emma Nelson an Associate Advisor at Oregon Pacific. Good morning, Emma. Thank you so much for being here.
Emma Nelson: Good morning. I'm glad to be here.
Royal: And I'm excited to introduce Emma here. She's been with us for a little while now. I'm really excited to have Emma here as well. She's just been a fantastic addition to the team, uh, over the past a year plus. So it's exciting to introduce her to the listening audience and, uh, a lot of our clients who, who maybe haven't talked to Emma quite yet.
Aric: Yeah. I'm looking forward to this interview. Royal hit it.
Royal: Perfect. So, so Emma, you know, we've known each other, I think about 15 years now. We met doing theater and that's kind of a big part of your life, isn't it?
Emma: It is and I hadn't realized that it's been that long when you say it like that, but, uh, yes, I've. I started in theater, um, back in high school, uh, volunteering at Barnstormers in Grants Pass, and it's been a part of my life ever since.
Royal: Very nice. Very nice. Now, one thing you reminded me of this morning as we were getting ready to start recording, is that you hate to be on stage and that I think this might be triggering you a little bit, with that, uh, performance anxiety of being on stage.
Emma: Absolutely hate it. Uh, I don't know why I still stayed in theater. Even though with the close proximity to the stage, I loved being behind the scenes,, behind the curtain where no one could see me. Maybe on a headset where only a select few were hearing me. I did appear on stage a few times and hated it every time people kept saying, you know, a lot of times people get into tech because they want to be on stage and I had no interest at all.
Royal: You met your husband doing theater as well. Correct?
Emma: I did working backstage. He is also a backstage person and he worked as a production manager for a local theater and, So we met when I was working on one of the touring shows, they would get large groups of people to help unload it. And, uh, so I've helped him with that. I worked there for a few years and then even once I moved on into this, um, financial career, I've gone back and helped when they have big shows, any chance I get to be behind the scenes and see what's going on.
Royal: Very nice. You know the interesting thing when, when we met, uh, you know, years and years ago, I think you had already established a reputation for just being completely professional, kind of top-notch and can really handle any situation backstage.
So even then, you know, I think when you were just out of high school, you had already built this reputation of really being able to handle yourself. No matter the situation and that, that always impressed me. And I wish we would have gotten the chance to work on, uh, other projects as well. But, you know, we just had to wait 14 or 15 years to do that.
Emma: Apparently I went out and learned some other things, you know, as I think about it like that, um, I was already planning things then and managing things then, and trying to gather a group of people or things together and help, bring it to a final goal.
Royal: Yeah And I think that's such a valuable, kind of leadership trait is to be able to manage something, try to get it into kind of that final product. That's really what we're trying to do here at Oregon Pacific as well. So when did you get into the financial services industry?
Emma: I got into it in 2012. I had to think about that 2012,
Royal: According to your regulatory documents. It is 2012.
Emma: Yeah, 2012. And, um, same thing. I actually ran into someone who was a part of the theater with me, who was a financial advisor.
And, um, she said, you know, what else do you want to do? And I said, you know, I'm not sure. I've enjoyed doing theater, but I don't, I'm not sure what else I want to do. So she asked me to join her team and, that was kind of the first dipping my toes into it. And, seeing what the whole financial advising industry was about.
And I think we probably ran into each other a few times during kind of those first, early years. And I know we had a few conversations there.
Royal: I think the interesting thing is, is, you know, how much time I took trying to get you over here and recruit you to Oregon Pacific.
Emma: Yes. It was a long time. And I kept saying, no, I don't think that's quite right. You know, I think we ran into each other because your office is downtown and the theater I was helping out was downtown. So you strolled by when we were unloading or loading up some show, one show or another and, um, I had a lot of other things going on in my life and, and kept considering it and it never quite worked out. It was busy with my kids and, um, I'm really glad that it finally clicked.
Royal: Me, too. Me, too. You're you you've been a great addition here over the past year, even though you did take some time off to, to have your second daughter.
Emma: You always think the timing has to be just right. So when we talked last year, kept thinking, I know it's gotta be the perfect timing and decided no, it's okay. That I'm going to, you were okay with me taking some maternity leave, which was really wonderful to get, to spend that time with my daughter. And I have a five-year-old and, um, a daughter who's 10 months old, also. And, uh, so it was nice to have that time with her, take a little break from being here and then come back and get back to helping you.
Royal: Yeah you left during a time when the world was normal. And then you came back during a global pandemic. And when we were trying to, kind of pick up the pieces and figure out what this new world that we're living in looks like. So, uh, you stepped right into the fire.
Emma: Yeah everything kind of broke while I was gone.
Royal: So, so you were the one holding everything together?
Emma: I guess so, that's what I get for staying home for a little while. You take your eye off the ball one time and look what happens.
Royal: So tell me a little bit about kind of what drew you into financial planning.
Emma: Well, you know, it kind of fell into it and wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it, but knew I was presented with an opportunity to help people. So I've just kind of taken the last few years since I started to learn as much as I can. Um, this industry is always changing, and I love that because there's always new information and it's never boring.
But I really saw an opportunity to help people and share that knowledge with them, make it accessible to them. Because it affects every corner of your life. And if people can get that information early and help saving for their retirement or make good financial decisions when they're buying a house, or dealing with their debt, then that can have a positive impact for the rest of their lives and their children's lives.
Royal: It really is, you know, great to see you interacting with your clients and my clients since we're working together as a team on a lot of different projects. Uh, and just seeing that client first or people
first attitude with really everything you're doing and what you're bringing to the table, when you are giving advice.
Emma: I just love people. I mean, you wouldn't get it from my fear of the stage and being in front of people, but you know, one-on-one conversations and getting to, talk to people and hear their story and hear what they're passionate about. I love that.
Royal: Excellent. Excellent. So Emma, what's your philosophy when it comes to financial planning and working with individuals?
Emma: You know, really just looking at everything in their lives and trying to bring it all together. You know, when you, if you're just looking at a retirement account, um, it doesn't give you a full picture of what's going on in someone's life. So asking, um, about what they care about, um, what motivates them, what they want to spend their free time doing, and then really bringing that around to how you can achieve that with your finances.
Royal: And, I think that's one thing that, is very nice because we have a very similar philosophy there when it comes to working with people. It's about a whole, a lot more than just the accounts and the asset allocation and that sort of thing. You know, I think we both truly believe it's about, using, those resources as tools to live the life that you want to lead. So it's exciting to see you, working with your clients on that as well.
Emma: Absolutely. Well, and that's one of the things that I loved and finally convinced me to come over to Oregon Pacific is, um, seeing how much the whole team cares about people and, wants to work with them and find them answers or help them with whatever is going on in their lives.
Royal: Yeah. I think one thing I've really strived for here at Oregon Pacific is really trying to just simplify people's lives as much as possible when it comes to, kind of this, complicated topic of financial planning.
Emma: And I think that's true. A lot of people come here. I've seen it had a lot of conversations with people that just feel like it's so overwhelming between the terminology and the media hype on some things. And, the unknown of the future when you're just putting money into something and you don't know your future much less the future of the market or anything else. There's so many unknowns that, um, just being able to have someone to talk to about those things and explain the terminology and walk you through things can be really helpful.
Royal: So what is a part of your day you enjoy most as a financial planner?
Emma: You know, probably getting to talk to people, Backstage. You get stuck talking to the same people all the time. Maybe that's what got me out of backstage, but, really being able to meet new people. I enjoy that. I enjoy picking up the phone and checking in on clients, seeing how they're doing, if we haven't talked to them for a little while and they always want to know is something wrong? Like, why are you calling me? And it's not, it's just to say hi, we just want to know how you're doing and make sure everything else is going well in your life. And I really enjoy those conversations.
Royal: Excellent. So when you're not here at work and you're not creeping around backstage at a theater, what do you do outside of kind of your work and, uh, that sort of thing.
Emma: Someone asked me recently, uh, you know, what else I enjoy doing? And, um, I don't remember any more before kids. Everything I do, is with my kids now. And I love every second of it. At five and almost a year, they are always busy doing something. And sometimes I have this grand plan on the weekend to plan to do something with them, and it always just goes right out the window with whatever the five-year-old's imagination is doing, you know, whether she's, It's always something with her. So I love spending time with them. I'm looking forward to teaching her to ski or snowboard. maybe this winter, maybe the next year. Um, I'm trying to hold back as long as I can, but I can't wait to get out on the mountain with her.
And, um, I have agreed to let my husband to teach her to ski first and then we'll teach her to snowboard and see which one she likes best. Um, cause that might be easier. But, uh, anything outdoors, we go camping. Um, we've planted a huge garden on our property. And so we just go out as a family and pick things for dinner and kind of talk about our day and anything outdoors.
Royal: Yeah. It's amazing how kids can just kind of become the center of your universe, especially in those, uh, those early years. I know that feeling well and, you know, that's, uh, that's exciting. So are you going to kind of tip the scales there unfairly between skiing and snowboarding for your daughter?
Emma: No, she will get to choose whichever one she likes, but it just so happens that mommy loves snowboarding. So we'll see. Skiing is probably easier to start with, I didn't learn until I was in high school to snowboard and transfer it and I can do both now, but we'll see, I just have a feeling she'll love snowboarding like me.
Royal: Very nice. Very nice. Now you and your husband also built your home that you're living in currently, correct?
Emma: Yeah. Yes we did. And that used all of our management skills as well. Uh, you know, we've said maybe it's like having a child, you know, you say you'll never do that again. Which we still think that it was a lot of work, a lot of planning, a lot of details to take care of. Um, but we enjoyed it and we love having something that we created. Or we were there watching people create all the time and, uh, we might do it again down the road if we were given the opportunity, but, it was an arduous process for sure.
Royal: Very nice. Very nice. So how, how has COVID affected you and, and kind of what's your outlook for this next year?
Emma: You know, we were really fortunate to have, young children that we don't have to worry about the school issue too much. We're able to just be at home with them and they don't mind it. They're, you know, Sophia misses her friends a little bit, but otherwise, she's quite content to be home and we live next door to my in-laws and we're able to spend time with them. So our little family, our circle got smaller, But not uncomfortably so we've really been able to focus on on this time with family close. And we'll kind of see how everything unfolds. We're just trying to be content in the moment and enjoy this family time. Cause I know it will go so fast and the kids will want to be out of the house, hanging out with their friends and running around soon.
So the more board games we can play now or, chase Sophia around as a superhero. I'll just enjoy those moments.
Royal: Very nice. Very nice. So, we we've gone through, you know, quite a volatile year here, with COVID-19 and I think everything else going on in the country, can you give some examples of how you've been able to kind of reassure our clients as we've gone through all this? And, I think some of those just communication and phone calls, how best do you kind of counsel clients, as they have questions that as they kind of face the unknown of. You know what this pandemic means, what this election means, that sort of thing.
Emma: Of course. Yeah. we've talked a lot about, understanding your risk tolerance and, you know, our first question is how, how are you doing and how are things going for you? What has changed? And there will always be volatility in the markets at some point that's what they do. They go up, they go down. So how much does a client want to be watching tha,t be involved in that?, how much did they want their investments to reflect that volatility? So really those are conversations we have before volatility, before anything goes wrong in the markets. So we talk about what are you going to want see if the market does drop 20%. So because we've had those conversations early on. Our clients are prepared for it. Um, and that's really what we want to talk to people coming in to is it's going to happen at some point, where do you want to be when it happens?
And then as we talk to them in the middle of a market downturn, we're really just have conversations with them and see how they're feeling with things and leave adjustments to later when the markets are looking better and we want to plan for that long term. So really talking to them about what the goal for these funds are.
And like I said, we have those conversations before there's a downturn. And as long as you're kind of keeping your eye on that goal and just letting your money go out there and work for you, I think that's been really comforting to people.
Royal: Absolutely. I think one of the most important things, as we build portfolios for our clients is understanding of, we don't want to make panic decisions when we do face that volatility in the markets, because you know, that really goes against what we're trying to set up in the first place, which are well diversified portfolios.
Emma: Absolutely. And I've seen that in a lot of the clients your clients that I've talked to, as well as that confidence in, well, we already talked about this and prepared for it, so we feel comfortable and we know there will be an end to it and we'll come back in when we can meet face-to-face again and have those conversations in person.
Royal: Yes. I think we're all looking forward to those in person conversations.
Emma: Absolutely, Zoom just doesn't cut it. Although I've noticed, you know, a year ago, if you'd asked me what Zoom was, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have even known, never used it. You know, a little bit of voice calling with family or friends from a distance, um, maybe some video calls and now it's kind of become a verb in our conversation. Like, Hey, you want to Zoom later?
Royal: Yeah. Yeah. I saw something in one of the papers yesterday. It was basically. a worker, just timing, how long she had to wear her zoom shirt for the day. You know, she, and I think her quote was ‘today I only had to wear my zoom shirt for 30 minutes. So it's a good day.’
Emma: Change back into something comfortable, you know, that has been a perk, also.
Royal: Yes, yes, indeed. Yes, indeed.
Emma: I've really loved seeing how, tolerant people have been with zoom calls, you know, as I've talked to either clients or, some of our other partners throughout the industry and they have a dog barking in the background, you know, someone told me yesterday, if you hear something barking, I don't have a dog. That's probably my kids. And everyone's just been so good about that. I mean, I'm sure my daughter’s squawked a few times when I've been on a call when I was working from home,. So I just love that people were so forgiving about that, and it really gave us a chance to, um, talk more about our lives and in person and get to know each other better because we were all home.
Royal: An interesting byproduct of everything we've been through here in the, the year of 2020.
Emma: Absolutely.
Royal: Um, so talk a little bit about what your investment philosophy is, you know, how do you counsel a client who comes in and says, you know, I'm getting ready to retire. Um, how, how do I figure out, how to go from accumulation to really spending what I've accumulated all these years, a de-accumulation.
Emma: You know, that is a very big step, um, for that everyone will hopefully get to take and, um, it's really an emotional step, really understanding what that's gonna look like and transitioning. But really talking about on the investment side, kind of setting aside the funds that you're going to need right away in more short term, um, less volatile strategies.So we talk through that about how much they're going to need withdrawal, and that is different for every person, depending what other pensions or social security, what their investments look like, insurance options, trying to build a strategy for them that allows them to not think too much about it. That's what retirement should be about is not having to worry about those finances, knowing your budget, being able to live on it and go out and, and do the things you enjoy.
Royal: Ah, I think that's an excellent, an excellent answer. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Emma: That's why that's why we work so well together here.I love this team that, uh, it, uh, it really clicked to come here and work together.
Royal: Very nice. Very nice. It's been a pleasure having you here. And I think, uh, we'll go ahead and just wrap up here. I just want to thank Emma for joining the team and being a part of what we're doing here at Oregon Pacific.
It's been a pleasure, this past year. And with that, I'll turn it back over to Aric. And maybe we can, uh, if you have any follow up questions, Aric, you can jump in here.
Aric: Well, I really love to ask Emma about some, you know, stories about Royal, but, uh, I might get fired. So
Emma: We'll save that for another day.
Aric: That’s another podcast altogether. The stories of Royal. I love that anyway. Well, we'll explore that.
Emma: Behind the scenes.
Aric: That's right. That's right. Royal, thank you so much for bringing Emma on. Emma, you were a fantastic guest. I hope you’re able to come back.
Emma: Thank you so much, Aric. it was so nice to talk to, you know, I've listened to these podcasts for a long time now, so it's nice to finally be here and talk with both of you even though it does involve a kind of being in front of an audience.
Aric: Well, you know, they don't know it yet, but they'll hear in a few weeks, so. Alright Royal, thank you so much for your time today.
Royal: Oh, my pleasure. Thank you, Aric.
Aric: You bet. And the last thank you of course, goes to your listening audience.
Thank you for tuning in and listening to the life by design podcast with Royal Standley. If you have not subscribed to the podcast yet, please click the subscribe now button below. This way when Royal comes out with a new podcast, it'll show up directly on your listening device. This makes it much easier to share these podcasts with your friends and family.
Again, thank you so much for listening today for everyone at Oregon Pacific financial advisors. This is Aric Johnson reminding you to live your best day every day. And we'll see you next time.
Outro: Thank you for listening to the Life by Design podcast, click the subscribe button below to be notified when new episodes become available, the views expressed are those of the presenter and may not reflect the views of United planners. Financial services material discussed is meant to provide general information and is not meant to be construed as specific investment tax or legal advice.
Individual needs vary and require consideration of your unique objectives and financial situation. Always seek the advice of your financial advisor or other qualified financial service provider with any questions you may have regarding your investment planning and advisory services offered through Oregon Pacific Financial Advisors, Inc.
Securities offered through United Planners Financial Services of America member FINRA, and SIPC Oregon Pacific Financial Advisors, Inc. And United Planners Financial Services are independent companies.
